Currently more than half of refugees live in urban areas rather than in camps, and this number is expected to grow. Living dispersed throughout cities, they are often ‘below the radar’. In most situations, the problems of urban refugees are very similar to those of the urban poor of the host country. However, refugees face additional burdens of registration and legal status, lost homes and assets, language, ethnic and religious barriers, loss of support networks and changed family dynamics. Moreover, in most cases theirs is not an acute emergency situation but rather a protracted one, where long-term solutions are needed rather than emergency measures.

Urban refugees have needs that require integrated, holistic solutions more than RH-specific ones. A team of our Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and refugee specialists worked with colleagues at both the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on a global desk review of urban refugees. Then, we consulted with UNFPA/UNHCR colleagues across Jordan, Malaysia and Uganda to develop and test a toolkit to address the sexual and reproductive health needs of urban refugees. We rolled out the toolkit by providing training for UNFPA/UNHCR staff.